fantasy-football-manager

Running Back Rankings

Updated as of 8/26/2013

Running back is almost always going to be your most important positions to fill in the draft. Even though some of the Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers are now outperforming many Running Backs, if you neglect the RB position in your fantasy draft you are one injury away from having a terrible season.

My quick rule of thumb for any year is that you should always draft 2 running backs in the first 4 rounds of your fantasy football draft. Which rounds you draft them is going to be based on who is left on the board.

If the quality RBs are all gone in the second round, get a great WR, QB or TE and look at getting one of the next five RBs on the draft board in the third round.

When it comes to drafting your 3rd running back, don't wait too long. You are always going to need a solid 3rd RB in case one of your top 2 go down. Darren Sproles and Ryan Matthews are both solid RBs that has fallen into the 5th or 6th round in a couple of pre-drafts that I have been in. Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to test the waters with one of the rookie RBs like Le'Veon Bell or Montee Ball.

The sleeper that I like for this year is Rashard Mendenhall, who moved offseason to the Arizona Cardinals. This isn't without risk as there is no guarantee that Arizona will run the ball more often than last year.

A good rule of thumb is to always have four starting running backs. Its usually easy to snipe a RB like Jonathan Stewart from Carolina or Ahmad Bradshaw from Indianapolis in the late rounds.

Also, you can hedge your bets by selecting one of the quality backups like Shane Vereen or Vick Ballard.


The Overall Running Back Rankings are below:

2013 NFL Fantasy Football Running Backs

RB
Rank
Name Team Bye
Week
Average
Overall
1 Adrian Peterson Min 5 1.05
2 Doug Martin TB 5 3.14
3 Arian Foster Hou 8 4.76
4 Jamaal Charles KC 10 4.67
5 Marshawn Lynch Sea 12 5.90
6 CJ Spiller Buf 12 5.57
7 LeSean McCoy Phi 12 7.67
8 Ray Rice Bal 8 7.38
9 Trent Richardson Cle 10 10.43
10 Alfred Morris Was 5 10.95
11 Matt Forte Chi 8 17.29
12 Stevan Ridley NE 10 21.33
13 Steven Jackson Atl 6 19.05
14 Maurice Jones-Drew Jac 9 20.05
15 Chris Johnson Ten 8 24.48
16 Frank Gore SF 9 33.86
17 Reggie Bush Det 9 35.81
18 DeMarco Murray Dal 11 36.00
19 David Wilson NYG 9 41.95
20 Lamar Miller Mia 6 44.52
21 Darren McFadden Oak 7 45.10
22 Darren Sproles NO 7 50.76
23 Montee Ball Den 9 61.10
24 Chris Ivory NYJ 10 76.86
25 Eddie Lacy GB 4 63.19
26 Ryan Mathews SD 8 63.38
27 Ahmad Bradshaw Ind 8 65.62
28 Rashard Mendenhall Ari 9 71.14
29 BenJarvus Green-Ellis Cin 12 82.43
30 Shane Vereen NE 10 80.38
31 Giovani Bernard Cin 12 83.33
32 Daryl Richardson StL 11 84.95
33 DeAngelo Williams Car 4 81.24
34 Andre Brown NYG 9 82.86
35 Mark Ingram NO 7 88.05
36 Jonathan Stewart Car 4 108.10
37 Bernard Pierce Bal 8 109.48
38 Ben Tate Hou 8 103.86
39 Bryce Brown Phi 12 107.52
40 Fred Jackson Buf 12 113.57
41 Vick Ballard Ind 8 106.00
42 Isaiah Pead StL 11 128.10
43 Shonn Greene Ten 8 128.90
44 Pierre Thomas NO 7 130.43
45 Danny Woodhead SD 8 130.48
46 Mikel Leshoure Det 9 133.33
47 Jacquizz Rodgers Atl 6 135.19
48 Ronnie Hillman Den 9 114.00
49 Michael Bush Chi 8 143.38
50 Bilal Powell NYJ 10 149.14
51 Jonathan Dwyer Pit 5 186.14
52 Johnathan Franklin GB 4 174.00
53 Daniel Thomas Mia 6 183.76
54 Knowshon Moreno Den 9 186.76
55 Marcel Reece Oak 7 184.29
56 Joique Bell Det 9 187.62
57 Le'Veon Bell Pit 5 170.90
58 Kendall Hunter SF 9 192.24
59 Zac Stacy StL 11 195.10
60 Isaac Redman Pit 5 205.90
61 LaMichael James SF 9 207.00
62 Ryan Williams Ari 9 214.10
63 Mike Tolbert Car 4 216.57
64 Joseph Randle Dal 11 241.43
65 Robert Turbin Sea 12 237.86
66 DuJuan Harris GB 4 240.95
67 Rashad Jennings Oak 7 237.29
68 Christine Michael Sea 12 242.33
69 Roy Helu Was 5 231.48
70 Lance Dunbar Dal 11 233.24

Projected Fantasy Value: 1st 4 Weeks and Playoffs

I'm adding a new chart for Running Back Rankings. You can see the overall rankings by scrolling below. This chart has projected fantasy points for the 2 most important times of the season: the First 4 weeks average and the 2 week playoff average (Week 15 and 16 are considered FFL playoffs)

Projected 1st 4 Weeks

Projected
1st 4 Weeks
Running Back Rush
Yards
Rush
TD
Rec
Yards
Rec
TD
Fum
Lost
1 Adrian Peterson Min 419 2.9 77.3 0.2 0.8
2 Arian Foster Hou 350 3.1 84.6 0.3 0.5
3 C.J. Spiller Buf 381 1.8 100 0.4 0.7
4 Doug Martin TB 326 2.3 109 0.4 0.2
5 Jamaal Charles KC 320 2.1 122 0.4 0.8
6 Maurice Jones-Drew Jac 364 1.8 90.9 0.2 0.7
7 Trent Richardson Cle 287 2.3 113 0.3 0.5
8 LeSean McCoy Phi 311 2.2 92.1 0.3 0.7
9 Marshawn Lynch Sea 344 2.2 48.8 0.2 0.8
10 Alfred Morris Was 335 2.7 29.8 0.1 0.5
11 Ray Rice Bal 273 1.9 112 0.4 0.5
12 Reggie Bush Det 235 1.7 150 0.8 0.7
13 Matt Forte Chi 284 1.3 131 0.5 0.4
14 Steven Jackson Atl 251 2.3 98.5 0.4 0.2
15 Stevan Ridley NE 319 2.7 17.7 0.1 0.7
16 DeMarco Murray Dal 282 1.6 102 0.4 0.7
17 Frank Gore SF 307 2.3 41.4 0.2 0.4
18 Chris Johnson Ten 295 1.3 86.2 0.2 0.6
19 David Wilson NYG 289 1.9 42.2 0.2 0.6
20 Chris Ivory NYJ 271 1.9 44.8 0.1 0.5
21 Daryl Richardson StL 263 1.3 79 0.3 0.9
22 Lamar Miller Mia 259 1.5 63.5 0.2 0.5
23 Ryan Mathews SD 260 1.5 58.7 0.3 0.6
24 Darren McFadden Oak 245 1.2 83.4 0.3 0.6
25 Darren Sproles NO 91.8 0.5 178 1.6 0.1

Week 15 Projections

Projected
Week 15
Running Back Rush
Yards
Rush
TD
Rec
Yards
Rec
TD
Fum
Lost
1 Adrian Peterson Min 110 0.8 20.9 0.1 0.2
2 Arian Foster Hou 89.5 0.8 21.1 0.1 0.1
3 C.J. Spiller Buf 96.3 0.4 24.6 0.1 0.2
4 Jamaal Charles KC 82.1 0.5 30 0.1 0.2
5 Maurice Jones-Drew Jac 90.2 0.5 22.1 0.1 0.2
6 Doug Martin TB 76.6 0.5 27.8 0.1 0
7 Trent Richardson Cle 71.7 0.6 28.2 0.1 0.1
8 LeSean McCoy Phi 76.3 0.6 23 0.1 0.2
9 Marshawn Lynch Sea 86.4 0.6 12.2 0.1 0.2
10 Matt Forte Chi 74.6 0.3 32.3 0.1 0.1
11 Ray Rice Bal 67.5 0.5 27.9 0.1 0.1
12 Alfred Morris Was 84.7 0.6 7.4 0 0.1
13 Steven Jackson Atl 63.2 0.6 24.5 0.1 0
14 Reggie Bush Det 57.6 0.4 37.6 0.2 0.2
15 DeMarco Murray Dal 67.8 0.4 26 0.1 0.2
16 Frank Gore SF 75.5 0.6 10.3 0 0.1
17 Stevan Ridley NE 77.2 0.7 4.5 0 0.2
18 Chris Johnson Ten 76.5 0.3 21.1 0.1 0.1
19 David Wilson NYG 71 0.4 10.7 0 0.1
20 Daryl Richardson StL 65.7 0.3 19.3 0.1 0.2
21 Chris Ivory NYJ 67.3 0.5 11.2 0 0.1
22 Darren McFadden Oak 62.8 0.3 20.8 0.1 0.2
23 Lamar Miller Mia 61.8 0.4 16.2 0.1 0.1
24 Eddie Lacy GB 58.2 0.4 15.4 0.1 0.1
25 Darren Sproles NO 22.9 0.1 44.6 0.4 0

Week 16 Projections

Projected
Week 16
Running Back Rush
Yards
Rush
TD
Rec
Yards
Rec
TD
Fum
Lost
1 Adrian Peterson Min 104 0.7 20.7 0 0.2
2 Arian Foster Hou 83.5 0.8 21.6 0.1 0.1
3 Doug Martin TB 80.5 0.6 27.4 0.1 0
4 C.J. Spiller Buf 92.2 0.4 25 0.1 0.2
5 Maurice Jones-Drew Jac 92.4 0.5 21.7 0.1 0.2
6 Jamaal Charles KC 79.9 0.5 30.5 0.1 0.2
7 Trent Richardson Cle 75.4 0.6 27.7 0.1 0.1
8 Matt Forte Chi 76.1 0.3 33.3 0.1 0.1
9 LeSean McCoy Phi 76.3 0.5 22.8 0.1 0.2
10 Marshawn Lynch Sea 86.4 0.6 11.9 0.1 0.2
11 Ray Rice Bal 67.5 0.5 28.4 0.1 0.1
12 Reggie Bush Det 60.3 0.4 37.6 0.2 0.2
13 Alfred Morris Was 82.8 0.7 7.4 0 0.1
14 Frank Gore SF 78.8 0.6 10.2 0 0.1
15 DeMarco Murray Dal 69.7 0.4 25.5 0.1 0.2
16 Steven Jackson Atl 59.9 0.5 24.9 0.1 0
17 Chris Johnson Ten 76.5 0.3 21.3 0.1 0.1
18 Stevan Ridley NE 77.2 0.7 4.5 0 0.2
19 David Wilson NYG 71.2 0.5 10.5 0 0.1
20 Chris Ivory NYJ 69.1 0.5 11 0 0.1
21 Ryan Mathews SD 67.5 0.4 14.4 0.1 0.2
22 Lamar Miller Mia 64.8 0.4 15.9 0.1 0.1
23 Le'Veon Bell Pit 60.9 0.4 14.6 0.1 0.1
24 Darren McFadden Oak 61.2 0.3 20.9 0.1 0.2
25 Darren Sproles NO 22.9 0.1 44.6 0.4 0